Digital Issue: SURVIVORSHIP

Digital download of the complete issue:

The SURVIVORSHIP issue, Apr / May 2020, Vol 5, No 1, 43 pages

Have you ever wondered: when do I get to call myself a “survivor?”

Or worried: does being metastatic mean “breast cancer survivor” applies to others but not me? Or maybe you are grappling with how to move on with life when breast cancer has left an undeniable mark on who you are.

“Survivorship” — the concept & this issue — is about all the little ways we survive each day (and what those days throw at us) from diagnosis onward, regardless of whether we were diagnosed “early” or “late.”

Deciding to do a survivorship issue, all that the word "survivor" connotes swirled in my head. I knew I was potentially stepping into logistics quicksand by giving the theme this name. Would I get a lot of submissions from women who felt confident they had beat cancer and would never look back? Would they want to offer advice to others on how to beat it? Would the metastatic community think I was excluding them? None of this was my goal for this issue. For me and WILDFIRE, “survivorship” has never been about crossing the cancer finish line. Rather, it is about crossing today’s finish line.

This is what I know right now: survivorship is realizing you can do really hard things and that you are stronger than you ever thought possible. Survivorship is losing friends, both inside the community and out. Survivorship is finding new friends. Survivorship is realizing what in this life really matters. Survivorship is facing the hard truths about how much cancer steals. Survivorship is deciding to tell your story.

Cover model: Denise Archer

Contents:

The Taken a poem by Dana Stewart | What Does Survivorship Mean? by Rebecca Hultquist | The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die by Melody Mansfield | The Uneven Thread of Synchronicity by Denise Archer | Let the Light In a photo story by Hannah Tomlinson | Cancer Clean Up by Mary Ladd | I Survived by Bernadette Priestley | That Time I Ran The New York City Marathon by Carrie Kreiswirth | The Second Time Around by Cathy Gigante-Brown | An Era of Indescribable Being by Alison Greenberg | Before “The Cancer Fashionista” by Melissa Berry | Living with MBC: Hope, Faith & Al by Karla Stephens-Tolstoy

Additional Contributors: Rebecca Hall Dickson, Rebecca Katz, Laura Carfang, Rosemary Carrera, April Doyle, Tiffany Dyba, Julie Gauvin, Brooke McKinnon, Grace Murphy, Laura Pike, Mackenzie Rockcastle, Alice Santurri, Elizabeth Toth, Kristie Vinopoll, Chelsee Wilson

PLUS: Yoga for Surviving the Ups and Downs of Life | Cool the Fire: Inflammation: Nutrition | Roasted Strawberries with Basil: Recipe | Tell Your Story Writing Prompt